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Victoria Derbyshire has described website traffic to her new daily BBC discussion show as "astonishing", despite reports that the broadcast version has achieved a "zero rating" according to The Guardian.

The Victoria Derbyshire programme, which launched on 7 April, was described by BBC News chief James Harding as the “centrepiece of domestic daytime TV news”.

She said: “We are the first digital-first news TV programme. We are putting all our films or clips or extracts of films online first, the day before [we broadcast]. Audience habits are changing dramatically.

"People are not going to sit around for 9.15 [the start of the show] or the One O’clock News, or the Six O’clock News. It doesn’t work like that any more. The number of hits we are getting is astonishing. The clip of the very first story we did on day one [on transgender children], which we put up the night before, has been seen 2.6 million times.”

Talking about the election, she told the Telegraph: “It’s more difficult to get answers from the politicians this time. They don’t want to put a foot wrong because the polls are so close. But it does feel stale. Access is harder. They are doing fewer walkabouts. Those television debates are incredibly sterile. There is so little interaction with voters. We need some electricity, some real life and energy."

Derbyshire began hosting the show after leaving her 16-year role as a presenter on BBC Radio 5 Live.